REG - Christie Group PLC - Preliminary Results
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RNS Number : 9042B Christie Group PLC 27 April 2026
27 April 2026
Christie Group plc
Preliminary results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2025
Very strong growth in FY25, coupled with strategic divestment, significantly
boost Group's earnings potential
Final dividend up 57%
Christie Group plc ('Christie Group' or the 'Group'), the leading provider of
Professional & Financial Services (PFS) and Stock & Inventory Systems
& Services (SISS) to the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical,
childcare & education and retail sectors, is pleased to announce its
audited preliminary results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2025 ('the
Period').
2025 Financial Headlines:
· 19.2% growth in revenue from continuing operations* to £70.6m
(2024: £59.2m)
· Growth ahead of Board expectations reflecting encouraging
underlying momentum across the business as well as unexpectedly strong deal
flow in the final weeks of the year
· 95.5% increase in operating profit from continuing operations to
£6.9m (2024: £3.5m); operating profit margin from continuing operations of
9.7% (2024: 5.9%)
· Profit before tax from continuing operations of £6.0m (2024:
£2.6m)
· In line with the Board's continued focus on improving the quality
of earnings, completed the sale of the Group's non-core Vennersys brand in
January 2026 for an initial cash consideration of £0.5m
· 22.1% growth in PFS revenues to £59.6m (2024: £48.8m) and
operating profit increased by £3.4m to £6.1m
· SISS revenues from continuing operations increased by 5.4% to
£11.0m (2024: £10.4m)
· Significant improvement in net funds position to £9.4m (2024:
£4.9m)
· 87.9% growth in earnings per share ("EPS") from continuing
operations to 19.37p (2024: 10.31p); total EPS from both continuing and
discontinued operations of 5.08p (2024: 7.77p)
· Final dividend increased by 57% to 2.75p (2024: 1.75p) per share
to give total in year of 3.50p (2024: 2.25p) reflecting the strong growth and
the Board's confidence in the future
*Continuing operations comprises all operations of the Group excluding the
Vennersys business, sold in January 2026
2025 Operational Headlines:
· Group sold 1,164 businesses in 2025, totalling nearly £2.0bn in
value, up 45% on the prior year, with a 26% increase in average brokerage fee
· 37% growth in fee income from European offices
· 63% increase in valuations carried out to 7,965 units (2024:
4,872)
· Finance brokerage revenues up 15% year-on-year
· 23% growth in the value of the Group's insurance brokerage
renewals book and increased client retention rate to 87% (2024: 84%)
· 5.4% growth in hospitality stock audit revenues
Current trading and outlook:
· 2026 has begun with encouraging levels of ongoing demand for the
Group's services
· UK transactional pipelines were 9.6% higher on 1(st) January 2026
than a year earlier and instruction levels have remained robust throughout Q1
· The Board is confident that its specialist sectors demonstrate
attractive long term fundamentals and we will continue to focus our services
in these sectors in the UK where we have exceptionally strong track records
and brand recognition
· The Board also expects to maintain ongoing investment in its
international operations to create a broader, multi-sector offering in
mainland Europe
· While the Board is mindful of current geopolitical circumstances
and its potential to dampen confidence, our activity levels, coupled with
seemingly good investor and lender appetite for our sectors, positions us well
for the year ahead
· Absent of any major market disruption and assuming more
normalised level of invoicing, we are confident of our ability to achieve
similar business sales volumes in FY26 and believe we are well positioned to
deliver another positive year
· The Group has now closed both its fully-funded defined benefit
pension schemes and is working towards a full buyout
Commenting on the results, Dan Prickett, Chief Executive of Christie Group
said:
"We are delighted to report an excellent set of results for 2025 which
illustrate the strong progress we have made during the year. We outperformed
original expectations quite substantially, in part due to exceptionally strong
deal flow in Q4. We sold 1,164 businesses in the year with a total value
nearing £2.0bn - up 45% year on year - while also boosting our average
brokerage fee by 26%.
After driving strong growth over the year alongside strategic divestments, the
Group is now well positioned to deliver on our strategic objectives in the
years ahead as we focus on driving revenue and earnings growth from our
continuing operations, strengthening our balance sheet further and delivering
enhanced value for our clients, staff and shareholders.
In recognition of a strong year of progress - with operating profit from
continuing operations up 95% year on year - we have increased our final
dividend by 57%.
While still relatively early in the new financial year, momentum in 2026 has
been encouraging. As a result, absent of disruption from the current
geopolitical backdrop, we remain confident in delivering another year of
positive progress and achieving our third consecutive year of selling over
1,000 businesses."
Enquiries:
Christie Group plc
Daniel Prickett 07885 813101
Chief Executive
Simon Hawkins 07767 354366
Chief Financial Officer
Shore Capital
Patrick Castle 020 7408 4090
Nominated Adviser & Broker
Hudson Sandler 020 7796 4133 / christiegroup@hudsonsandler.com
Alex Brennan/Hattie Dreyfus/Emily Brooker (mailto:christiegroup@hudsonsandler.com)
Financial PR
Notes to Editors:
Christie Group plc (CTG.L), quoted on AIM, is a leading professional business
services group with 32 offices across the UK and Europe, catering to its
specialist markets in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare
& education and retail sectors.
Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions:
Professional & Financial Services (PFS) and Stock & Inventory Systems
& Services (SISS). These divisions trade under the brand names: PFS
- Christie & Co, Pinders, Christie Finance and Christie Insurance: SISS
- Venners.
Tracing its origins back to 1896, the Group has a long-established reputation
for offering valued services to client companies in agency, valuation
services, investment, consultancy, project management, stock audit and
inventory management. The diversity of these services provides a natural
balance to the Group's core agency business.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to
constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No.
596/2014.
For more information, please go to https://www.christiegroup.com/
(https://www.christiegroup.com/)
More about our services:
https://www.christie.com/
https://www.christieinsurance.com/
https://www.christiefinance.com (https://www.christiefinance.com)
https://www.pinders.co.uk (https://www.pinders.co.uk)
https://www.venners.com/
CHAIRMAN'S REVIEW OF THE YEAR
Financial Performance
The table below sets out a summary of the results for the year. The Chief
Executive's Review provides a comprehensive commentary covering the
performance of our two Divisions, but the headline numbers show that the Group
achieved a revenue from continuing operations of £70.6m, a 19.2% growth from
£59.2m in 2024. This growth contributed to operating profits from continuing
operations of £6.9m, a significant improvement on the £3.5m of operating
profit in the prior year.
Our Professional & Financial Services (PFS) division experienced 22.1%
revenue growth, reaching £59.6m (2024: £48.8m), which was driven by a strong
recovery in transactional brokerage activity in the UK. Operating profits of
£6.1m grew by 121.1% (2024: £2.8m).
The Stock & Inventory Systems & Services (SISS) division's continuing
operations showed solid revenue growth, increasing by 5.4% to £11.0m (2024:
£10.4m). Operating profit from continuing operations improved marginally at
£0.8m (2024: £0.7m), despite ever increasing cost pressures.
2025 2024
Continuing- reported Dis-continued Total Continuing-reported (restated) Dis-continued (restated) Total
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Revenue 70,600 1,247 71,847 59,239 12,283 71,522
Operating profit/(loss) 6,883 (1,502) 5,381 3,521 (1,996) 1,525
Finance costs (874) - (874) (952) (111) (1,063)
Profit/(loss) before tax 6,009 (1,502) 4,507 2,569 (2,107) 462
Taxation (1,042) (67) (1,109) 95 (21) 74
Profit/(loss) after tax 4,967 (1,569) 3,398 2,664 (2,128) 536
(Loss)/gain on disposal - (2,096) (2,096) - 1,471 1,471
Profit/(loss) for the year 4,967 (3,665) 1,302 2,664 (657) 2,007
Net assets 5,361 5,111
Cash and cash equivalents 9,400 4,870
Earnings per share - Basic 19.37 (14.29) 5.08 10.31 (2.54) 7.77
Final dividend (pence per share) 2.75 1.75
Full year dividend (pence per share) 3.50 2.25
Strategic Highlights
As part of the Group's ongoing strategy to enhance quality of earnings we were
pleased to announce the divestment of Vennersys on 22 December 2025, following
the sale of Orridge in 2024, the second of the Group's historically persistent
loss-making businesses. We received an initial cash consideration of £0.5m on
completion in January 2026, with potential further deferred consideration
capped at £0.9m.
This divestment leaves the Group with a stronger balance sheet and crucially
the time and resources to focus on investing profits into the Group's
continuing higher margin businesses and international operations, allowing us
to support their growth and shareholder return, while continuing to provide
unrivalled service to our clients and further enhance the Group's value to all
stakeholders.
Our agency and advisory business Christie and Co celebrated its 90(th) year by
producing a record fee income, driven by the growth in year by the greater
average value instructions across our chosen sectors and the consequential
increased fee income of individual transactions completed.
We continued to invest in, expand and grow our European brokerage and advisory
network, which increased fee income by 37%. We believe continued investment in
our chosen European markets will deliver sustainable growth and market
diversification will lead to improving the Group's future growth and
resilience.
Meanwhile our valuations, finance brokerage and insurance teams continued to
grow and perform well.
Venners, our market leading stock audit and consultancy business, showed its
own resilience, flexibility and the importance of its product offering to its
clients, by successfully implementing fee increases, which recovered
underlying employee cost increases and reflected the clients' recognition of
our employees' skill levels and the value they contribute. This delivered
revenue growth, despite an extremely challenging year in the hospitality
industry. Venners increased headcount to 200 employees by the year end, while
successfully focussing its HR strategy on remaining a recognised employer of
choice in the sector.
Environmental, Social & Governance
We have made further progress in 2025 in more empirically assessing our
climate risks and environmental impact and we have expanded our reporting in
this area. Our belief that the environmental impact of our businesses is
relatively limited is endorsed by this review, but we are now embarked on the
process of gradually evolving our practices - where appropriate to do so -
towards achieving a long-term goal of carbon neutrality but at a pace which is
appropriate for our business and stakeholders. While we continue to remain
cautious in light of current geopolitical events, we are confident of our
ability to deliver on our plans for the year ahead and that we have the
resources to support our ambitions in this respect. We remain committed to
always promoting and demonstrating highly ethical values across our Group and
always striving to do the right thing. We believe in looking after our teams,
so that they may continue to look after our clients, providing the exceptional
quality of service that our clients expect, deserve and receive. We value
client feedback, and we recognise the benefits that a positive client
experience creates in terms of repeat business and referrals.
Looking Ahead
The Group's teams are beginning to collaborate more following our strategy
enhancement and a focus on strengthening our mutually beneficial business
model across income streams, services offerings and clients in our chosen
markets. This further strengthens the Group, drives revenue and enhances our
portfolio of client service offerings. All our income streams are showing
progress under our new strategy.
Like all businesses in the current environment, we cannot be totally immune
from global geopolitical events and the much predicted economic headwinds
ahead, but we are confident that with a strengthened balance sheet, the
quality of our team and the removal of the lower margin loss making
distractions, our business is significantly better prepared to press ahead and
realise long term value for all stakeholders and we will continue to work
together collegiately to put us in the best position possible to weather an
economic storm, should one appear.
I would personally like to thank our clients and shareholders for their
support and every team member for their tireless hard work, dedication and
contribution to our very strong Group performance during the year.
We remain confident in Christie Group PLC's future and consequently we are
recommending a final dividend of 2.75p (2024: 1.75p) per share, to be approved
at our AGM on Tuesday 16 June 2026. Subject to that approval, the dividend is
set for payment on 10 July 2026 to those shareholders on the register on 12
June 2026.
Simon Herrick
Non-executive Chairman
24 April 2026
CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S REVIEW
I am pleased to be able to look back on an extremely positive year for our
Group. We increased revenues both in the UK and Internationally, substantially
outperformed our original operating profit expectations, eliminated our
exposure to the long-term losses and cash funding requirements of our non-core
Vennersys business, and ended the year with a significantly improved cash
position.
Financial performance summary
Revenue from continuing operations grew strongly once again, with a 19.2%
increase to £70.6m (2024: £59.2m).
Operating profit from continuing operations increased significantly by 95% to
£6.9m (2024: £3.5m), illustrating the operational gearing inherent in our
continuing businesses and the opportunity that exists for enhancing earnings
further in the years ahead.
Total employee benefit expenses - the cost of attracting, retaining and
incentivising our excellent teams of people - increased by 14.1%. We grew
headcount in our continuing businesses by 3.5% during the year but income
productivity increased significantly in our PFS division and, as such,
incentivised pay linked to revenue and profit generation grew accordingly
alongside inflationary and promotional pay increases.
Having divested the loss-making Orridge and Vennersys brands in the last two
years, we have enhanced our operating margin from continuing operations by
over 60%, rising from 5.9% in 2024 to 9.7% in 2025. This step forward
evidences that our remaining brands can deliver margins in excess of 10% of
revenues.
Basic earnings per share from our continuing operations increased markedly to
19.37 pence per share (2024: 10.31 pence per share).
Vennersys disposal
Following the sale of Orridge in November 2024, the Board concluded that, as
with Orridge, the ongoing ownership and inherent funding requirements of
Vennersys were not compatible with our wider strategic objectives. We reached
agreement for the sale of the Vennersys business on 19 December 2025, with the
sale completing on 16(th) January 2026.
The sale of the business - for an initial cash consideration of £0.5m
received on completion in January 2026 and with further deferred consideration
expected to be received by the end of July 2027 - enabled us to end our
ongoing funding requirements.
Cash and balance sheet
A strong balance sheet remains key for the Group in ensuring that we have the
available resources to support ongoing growth investment requirements, as well
as providing the resilience to navigate inevitable downturns in the economic
cycle which we know from over 90 years of experience can temporarily disrupt
M&A activity and our related core markets. Alongside both of these
requirements sits the objective of sustaining an appropriate and progressive
dividend to shareholders.
The divestments of Orridge and Vennersys in 2024 and 2025 have removed
long-term loss making and cash-absorbing operations, while generating over
£5.5m in cash consideration to date.
Alongside our trading performance, this meant we ended the year with a
significantly improved cash balance of £9.4m (2024: £4.9m) and a transformed
cash position from two years earlier, when cash stood at £1.3m.
As reported, we have also now concluded a consultation with the remaining
active members of our two final salary pension schemes which saw both schemes
close to ongoing accrual of benefits on 6(th) April 2026. This is a key step
in our balance sheet strategy and enables us to now work constructively with
the trustees of both schemes with the shared objective of securing a full
buy-out in due course, thereby removing all final salary scheme assets and
liabilities from our balance sheet while ensuring all members' benefits are
fully secured. While we pursue this objective, we can do so in the comfort of
both schemes remaining in a healthy surplus position and with an investment
strategy in both schemes which hedges liability risks almost entirely.
Professional & Financial Services Division
Our PFS division continues to provide clients across our sectors with a range
of services designed to support their own growth ambitions. While we provide a
wide range of services tailored to give best-in-class advice to owners and
operators running property-backed businesses in specialist sectors of
sufficient size to support a functioning M&A market, those services
broadly fit into 5 headline offerings:
· Brokering the sale and purchase of businesses;
· Valuation & appraisal of businesses, typically to support
lending requirements;
· Consultancy and advisory services to assist owners and operators
looking to acquire, establish or grow a business in those sectors and to
optimise their own business performance;
· Brokering a range of business finance to support clients'
acquisition, expansion and operational funding needs; and
· Arranging insurance cover for owners and operators in our sectors
We provide these services through four long-established brands: Christie &
Co, Christie Finance, Christie Insurance and Pinders.
Our agency and advisory business, Christie & Co, celebrated its 90(th)
anniversary year by delivering a record performance in terms of fee income.
The average value of businesses sold by Christie & Co in 2025 increased
by 4.2%, but Christie & Co's own average fee on its brokerage activity was
up 26%, driving strong revenue growth from similar volumes as were achieved in
2024. Our chosen sectors performed strongly, despite what were perceived as
more challenging economic conditions generally.
We secured multiple high-value instructions across Care, Childcare, Hotels,
Retail, Pharmacy and Garden Centres. Portfolio mandates led from the UK,
especially in Care, where we saw continued consolidation from corporate
operators but with positive effects flowing into the independent and regional
operator markets.
Highlights from a positive year for all of our sector teams included
successfully advising Omega Healthcare Investors Inc on the acquisition of 47
care homes previously operated by Four Seasons Health Care Group, our
brokerage of the sale of the Perfect Start Day nurseries group to Kids Planet
Day Nurseries and the particularly swift sale of the Orchard Street Garden
Centres group, illustrating the rapid transaction momentum which exists across
the UK garden centre market.
In mainland Europe, our ambitions to significantly expand and grow our
brokerage and advisory presence took an encouraging step forwards, as we
increased fee income from our European network of offices by 37%. Highlights
included the sale of the Vienna Marriott hotel - one of the most significant
hotel transactions in the Austrian market in 2025 - and a record year from our
French team who sold 57 hotels during the period. Christie & Co were
subsequently recognised as the most active hotel property agent across the UK
and Eurozone according to the MSCI Real Assets 2025 Global Brokerage Rankings.
Our Healthcare teams in France and Germany continued to win new instructions
following their respective launches in 2023 and 2024.
Our valuation teams across Christie & Co and Pinders both delivered
excellent growth performances. We increased the total number of valuations
carried out by 63%, valuing £14.5bn of assets in the period (2024: £8.9bn).
We secured a major portfolio valuation in the Care sector, continued our
annual valuation of the Marston's pub estate, and completed the first of a
multi-year engagement to value the Greene King estate in the same sector.
While the significant portfolio assignments - notably from the Pub sector -
had the effect of reducing average fee levels across the nearly 8,000
businesses we valued in the year, total valuation and appraisal revenues grew
by 25.1% year on year, representing a year of significant progress and
success.
Our FCA-regulated finance brokerage business, Christie Finance, delivered
another excellent year, with growth across all four of its divisions.
Continuing the progress made in 2024, we saw increased activity across all
areas of the business, with instructions up 14% and fee income up by 15%. We
increased headcount in the business by 13% to support continued growth.
The growth of Christie Finance's newer divisions - Unsecured Finance (launched
in 2017), Real Estate (2024) and Corporate Debt Advisory (2023) - has
diversified our income spread. In FY25, 56% of the business's fee income in
FY25 came from its 'Core' commercial mortgage division, down from 65% two
years ago, notwithstanding that the Core division still increased its own
income by 6%. In total, the business secured debt for clients of £292m, a 38%
increase on 2024 (£212m).
During the year, the reductions in the Bank of England base rate were received
positively. However, our original expectation of further reductions in
borrowing costs in the coming year are now softer than expected due to the
effects of the conflict in the Middle East. Despite this, we are not seeing a
significant negative reaction from lenders of commercial mortgage products,
and borrower demand and lending appetite has remained robust throughout the
first quarter of 2026.
Christie Finance's ability to support and benefit from Christie & Co's own
sector-specialist activity remains a key source of income and an opportunity
for further growth. During the year, 59% (2024: 55%) of the instructions for
its Commercial Mortgage and Debt Advisory divisions were introduced by
Christie & Co, with 12% (2024: 10%) of all Christie & Co brokered
transactions having a Christie Finance involvement.
Our insurance intermediary business, Christie Insurance, which offers policies
to meet the needs of businesses in our chosen sectors, continued its own
progress. Client retention rose from 84% in the prior year, to 87% in 2025,
endorsing its client-centric approach to both product sales and the claims
process. This strong renewals performance, coupled with a gradually improving
new business sales performance, saw the value of our renewal book increase by
23% in the year.
Life insurance remains a cornerstone of financial planning for protecting
shares, loans, key staff, and families and a fundamental requirement for any
client arranging a commercial mortgage through Christie Finance. We expanded
our Life team in 2025 and have plans to increase it further in 2026,
recognising the further opportunities that exist to support Christie Finance's
own growing client base and product offering.
PFS divisional KPIs 2025 2024
Total businesses sold 1,164 1,187
% decrease / increase in average fee per business sold 25.57% (15.83%)
Total value of businesses sold (£m) 1,967 1,350
Total valuations carried out (units) 7,965 4,872
% increase in average fee per valuation (43.36%) 11.1%
Value of businesses valued (£m) 14,464 8,853
% increase in number of loan offers secured 18.80% 13.08%
Average loan size (£'000) 508 439
Stock & Inventory Systems & Services Division
Following several years of strong growth since the pandemic, our market
leading stock audit and consultancy business, Venners, experienced a more
challenging year as the hospitality sector adapted to the continued cost
pressures facing it. As clients looked to manage their own expenditure levels,
new business growth was more challenging to achieve than in recent years and
clients also extended stocktaking cycles.
Despite this, the business still delivered revenue growth which was testament
to the strength and flexibility of its client offering. Revenues increased by
5.4% to £11.0m (2024: £10.4m), combining a 6.2% growth in the volume of
audit assignments carried out with fee increases which reflect the business's
need to maintain its skilled teams' pay levels at competitive levels. Venners'
long-standing relationship with Marstons was also renewed and extended.
Having increased its headcount in the year to 200 by the year end, with over
150 nationally deployable stocktakers, the business continued to focus on
ensuring it is an employer of choice in the sector with a focus on developing
its employee experience. This was reflected in it being a finalist for the
'Best Learning & Development Strategy in an SME' at the HR Excellence
Awards, and in the 'Wellbeing' category at the National Innovation in Training
awards. Venners also attained accreditation with Disability Confident and
joined Neurodiversity in Business as part of its commitment to raising
awareness of neurodiversity within the business.
SISS divisional KPIs 2025 2024
Total stocktakes & audits carried out (number of jobs) 35,024 32,989
% (decrease) / increase in average income per job (1.60%) 3.1%
% increase in average income per man day 2.7% 6.3%
Outlook
2026 has begun encouragingly with good levels of ongoing demand for our
services and strong pipelines. The value of our UK transactional pipeline was
9.6% higher on 1(st) January 2026 than a year earlier. Similarly, we commenced
the year with increased pipelines on the prior year in both our international
brokerage operations and our finance brokerage business, reflecting ongoing
progress towards achieving our growth ambitions in both areas of the business.
This positive momentum is despite the widely publicised macro-economic
uncertainty and the Group's exceptionally strong deal flow in the final weeks
of FY25 when we completed several deals initially forecast for completion Q1
2026.These boosted profits in FY25 ahead of expectations.
While we continue to see deal times elongate slightly and are mindful of the
potential for current geopolitical events to dampen confidence, our activity
levels, coupled with seemingly robust investor and lender appetite for our
sectors, bodes well for the year ahead. Therefore, absent of any major market
disruption, having sold over 1,150 businesses across the UK and Europe in both
of the last two years, we are confident of our ability to achieve similar
volumes in FY26. As a result, and assuming a more normalised level of
invoicing, the Board anticipates another positive year and one which we
currently consider ourselves well-positioned to deliver.
Dan Prickett
Chief Executive
24 April 2026
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER'S REVIEW
I am delighted to report that 2025 continued the progression made in 2024 and
the Group delivered significant growth in revenue and profit in 2025.
During the year, we exchanged on the sale of the business and assets of our
visitor attraction software business, Vennersys and this transaction completed
in January 2026. This business, which was not considered core, had been loss
making and consuming cash for a number of years. Total consideration
receivable is up to £1.4m, with £0.5m received on completion in January 2026
and further consideration receivable over the next 18 months subject to
certain post completion performance conditions being achieved.
This strategic disposal followed on from the disinvestment of the Orridge
Group of businesses in November 2024 which had also been loss-making and
consuming cash for a number of years and similarly were not considered core
following a Board strategic review.
As a result of these two strategic divestments and the meaningful improvement
in performance, we exited 2025 with enhanced net funds, zero external
borrowings, limited ongoing cash pension obligations and an appreciably
stronger balance sheet. This puts the Group in an excellent position to
support our future growth ambitions in our remaining higher margin brands.
Income statement - continuing basis
Revenue for the full year was up by 19.2% to £70.6m (2024: £59.2m) with an
increase in operating profit to £6.9m (2024: £3.5m).
2025 v 2024 - continuing operations
2025 2024 Variance Variance
£'000 £'000 £'000 %
Revenue 70,600 59,239 11,361 19.2%
Operating profit 6,883 3,521 3,362 95.5%
Operating margin % 9.7% 5.9% 3.8% 64.0%
19.37p 10.31p 9.06p 87.9%
EPS p
As the table above illustrates, we achieved strong growth in revenues, profits
and a considerably stronger operating margin percentage in 2025, as the
benefits of the operational gearing model delivered.
Operating profit increased by 95.5% to £6.9m (2024: £3.5m). This was
underpinned by an excellent performance in the PFS division which achieved an
operating profit of £6.1m. Pleasingly, after a number of years of losses, the
SISS division on a continuing basis recorded an operating profit of £0.75m.
To return the SISS division to profitability, as previously stated was a key
short-term objective for the Board and we are pleased to achieve this
objective in 2025.
Operating profit margin improved by 64.0% to 9.7% (2024: 5.9%), which the
Board believes more accurately reflects the underlying operating profit
potential within the Group and the opportunity to achieve operating margins in
excess of 10% across the remaining brands.
Balance sheet
The Group continues to strive to further strengthen its balance sheet to
support and fund future growth opportunities, whilst providing resilience to
any short-term market disruption and fund a progressive dividend strategy.
The Group balance sheet continues to be strengthened in 2025 with a number of
different factors contributing to this as follows:
· Divestment of the loss making Vennersys business
· No external debt
· De-risked defined benefits pension costs with only minimal
ongoing employer contributions payable for active members of £0.1m in 2025
and this will be further de-risked in 2026
· Robust working capital and debtor management
Cash and net funds
We ended the year with a meaningful increase in net funds to £9.4m (2024:
£4.9m), measured as cash and cash equivalents less total borrowings and with
no external borrowings.
Cash generated from operations activities was strong at £7.5m (2024: £2.7m),
illustrating the Group's ability to convert a strong trading performance into
cash.
During the year, the Group increased the dividend and paid £0.6m (2024:
£0.3m) cash in the year.
Capital investment
During the year, we invested £1.2m (2024: £1.3m) in capital expenditure. A
significant element of this capital expenditure (£0.6m) was within our
Vennersys SaaS business, which we have subsequently divested and thus the
Board would anticipate that capital expenditure going forward will be lower.
However, as a Group we continue to develop and augment our overall tech
capabilities to deliver enhanced solutions for our clients, improve operation
efficiencies and facilitate and streamline more cross-selling opportunities
across the Group. During the year we invested £0.2m in a new sales and
collaboration platform across the Group. The Board anticipates that this will
lead to greater cross-selling opportunities across the Group in all of our
brands whilst enhancing our service to our clients.
Pension schemes
As a Group, we have endeavoured to mitigate pension risk exposure with our two
defined benefit schemes closed to new members since 1999 and 2000
respectively. At the 31 December 2025, active employee membership of those two
schemes stands at less than 2% of our average total number of employees,
whilst the remaining eligible employees are members of our defined
contribution schemes.
The pension liability as measured at the balance sheet date in accordance with
IAS 19 and IFRIC 14 was £0.8m and this has considerably improved over recent
years with a reduction in the liability of over £19.0m since 2020. In fact,
at the balance sheet date there was a surplus of £15.8m in the defined
benefit schemes although accounting standards prevent us from being able to
recognise this in our balance sheet.
In recent times, the trustees of both schemes have made significant investment
strategy changes to a matching hedged strategy, with the objective that this
minimises ongoing cash obligations for the Group going forward. We continue to
explore further de-risking options to ultimately remove both defined benefit
schemes off our balance sheet which is our ultimate objective and we announced
on 2 April 2026 the key step of closing both defined benefit schemes to
ongoing accrual as we now work towards achieving a full buy-out.
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
In addition to the non-financial KPIs included in the Chief Executive report,
the principal financial KPIs for the Group and the individual operating
divisions are set out in the table below.
· Revenue movement % - is a key indicator that the Group monitor.
· Operating margin % - an important part of our strategy is the
profitable growth of our businesses and one measure of this is the operating
profit % margin. This is measured as operating result as a percentage of
revenue.
· Earnings per share (EPS) growth - an important part of our
strategy is the growth in our EPS. This is measured both in absolute terms and
year-on-year % growth.
· Net funds/(debt) - a key metric for the Group is its cash and
debt resources. Net funds/(debt) position is closely monitored.
KPIs
Revenue movement (%) Group PFS SISS
2025 on 2024 continuing 19.2% 22.1% 5.4%
2024 on 2023 continuing restated 13.2% 15.5% 3.3%
2023 on 2022 (4.8%) (10.9%) 8.4%
2022 on 2021 13.0% 8.2% 24.8%
2021 on 2020 45.1% 67.0% 9.2%
Group PFS SISS
Operating profit/(loss) as % of revenue
2025 continuing 9.7% 10.3% 6.8%
2024 continuing restated 5.9% 5.7% 7.2%
2023 (1.0%) 3.2% (8.4%)
2022 7.9% 16.0% (9.7%)
2021 8.5% 17.3% (13.6%)
EPS (pence) Group YOY mve YOY %
2025 continuing 19.37p 9.06p 87.9%
2024 continuing restated 10.31p 19.64p 210.5%
2023 (9.33p) (21.65p) (175.7%)
2022 12.32p (1.39p) (10.1%)
2021 13.71p 33.03p 171.0%
Net funds (£'000) Group Movement
2025 9,400 4,530
2024 4,870 4,255
2023 615 (6,601)
2022 7,216 2,617
2021 4,599 521
Group
At the Group level, all KPI's exemplified meaningful growth against the prior
year KPIs.
Revenue increased by 19.2% in the year and this followed a strong 2024
performance where we achieved a 13.2% improvement in 2024. Operating profit
margin improved to an overall 9.7%, which was an increase in profit margin of
3.8% in the year on a restated basis.
We achieved a considerable improvement in net funds which increased by £4.5m
to £9.4m.
PFS
In the PFS division, revenue improved by a noteworthy 22.1% following improved
performances across all of our brands. Transactional volumes and an increase
in average fees in our agency businesses, together with increased activity in
our finance business Christie Finance and strong demand for our valuation and
advisory businesses underpinned this increase in revenue.
Operating profit percentage almost doubled and increased to 10.3% from 5.7%.
This profit margin is inclusive of the ongoing strategic investment to grow
our headcount in all our brands in the UK and internationally particularly in
new sectors internationally. The return on investment of this headcount growth
- can take up to 3 years before a broker is fully productive - impacts
short-term profitability as the associated people related costs of this
headcount growth is charged to the income statement as incurred.
Nevertheless, our ambitions for the division remain unaltered; profitable
growth through the strategic expansion of our service offerings where we can
replicate our UK business models and services while remaining focused on our
specialist sectors. The investment we have made and continue to make creating
an international infrastructure across new sectors, whilst impacting
short-term profitability will ultimately lead to reduced sector risk,
increased capacity and the ability for enhanced operational gearing which make
further improvement of these KPI's a realistic objective.
SISS
Following the divestment of the loss-making businesses, the SISS division now
consists of our Hospitality stock audit and consultancy business Venners which
is profitable. In 2025 the SISS division returned to profitability, which as
previously stated was a key short-term objective for the Board and we are
pleased to achieve this objective in 2025.
Taxation
The absolute tax position for the year was a charge of £1.0m (2024: credit
£0.1m). This charge is principally reflected of the utilisation of tax losses
brought forward in the year with a deferred tax charge of £0.6m in the year
(2024: deferred tax credit of £0.1m). Additionally, the utilisation of tax
losses brought forward benefited cashflow in the current year.
As a result of this, the deferred tax asset had decreased to £1.5m (2024:
£2.1m).
Earnings per share (EPS) on a continuing basis
Total basic EPS on a continuing basis increased significantly in the year by
87.9% to 19.37p (2024: 10.31p) as a result and reflection of the strong
trading performance.
On a total basis including discontinued operations EPS was 5.08p (2024: 7.77p)
The Board believe that following the strategic loss-making divestments,
together with the progress the Group has made in its existing brands, this
should benefit the Group's EPS levels going forward.
2025 EPS is represented as follows:
Continuing Discontinued Total
£'000 £'000 £'000
Profit/(loss) after tax 4,967 (1,569) 3,398
Loss on disposal - (2,096) (2,096)
Total profit/(loss) after tax 4,967 (3,665) 1,302
EPS
Profit/(loss) after tax 19.37p (6.12p) 13.25p
Loss on disposal - (8.17p) (8.17p)
Total EPS 19.37p (14.29p) 5.08p
Simon Hawkins
Chief Financial Officer
24 April 2026
CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT
For the year ended 31 December 2025
2025 2024
restated
£'000 £'000
Continuing operations
Revenue 70,600 59,239
Employee benefit expenses (47,461) (41,600)
23,139 17,639
Other operating expenses (16,256) (14,118)
Operating profit 6,883 3,521
Finance costs (888) (952)
Finance income 14 -
Total finance costs (874) (952)
Profit before tax 6,009 2,569
Taxation (1,042) 95
Profit after tax from continuing operations 4,967 2,664
Discontinued operations
Loss from discontinued operations (3,665) (657)
Profit for the year 1,302 2,007
Earnings per share
From continuing operations:
Basic 19.37 10.31
Diluted 19.29 10.26
From continuing and discontinued operations:
Basic 5.08 7.77
Diluted 5.06 7.73
All profit after tax is attributable to the equity shareholders of the parent.
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these preliminary results.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
For the year ended 31 December 2025
2025 2024
£'000 £'000
Profit after tax 1,302 2,007
Other comprehensive income:
Items that may be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss:
Exchange differences on translation of foreign operations 23 (26)
Net other comprehensive income/(loss) to be reclassified to profit or loss in 23 (26)
subsequent years
Items that will not be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss:
Remeasurements of defined benefit plans 210 (1,225)
Effect of asset ceiling (265) 1,234
(55) 9
Income tax effect on defined benefit plans (52) 307
Income tax effect of asset ceiling 66 (309)
14 (2)
Net other comprehensive (loss)/income not being reclassified to profit or loss (41) 7
in subsequent years
Other comprehensive loss for the year net of tax (18) (19)
Total comprehensive income for the year 1,284 1,988
Total comprehensive income is attributable to the equity shareholders of the
parent.
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these preliminary results.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
As at 31 December 2025
For the year ended 31 December 2024 Share capital Cumulative translation reserve Retained earnings Total equity £'000
£'000 Other reserves £'000 £'000
£'000
Balance at 1 January 2024 531 3,679 525 (1,434) 3,301
Profit for the year after tax - - - 2,007 2,007
Other comprehensive (loss)/income - - (26) 7 (19)
Total comprehensive (loss)/income for the year - - (26) 2,014 1,988
Movement in respect of employee share scheme - 22 - - 22
Employee share option scheme
- value of services provided - 57 - - 57
Dividends paid - - - (257) (257)
Transactions with shareholders - 79 - (257) (178)
Balance at 31 December 2024 531 3,758 499 323 5,111
For the year ended 31 December 2025 Share capital Cumulative translation reserve Retained earnings Total equity £'000
£'000 Other reserves £'000 £'000
£'000
Balance at 1 January 2025 531 3,758 499 323 5,111
Profit for the year after tax - - - 1,302 1,302
Other comprehensive income/(loss) - - 23 (41) (18)
Total comprehensive income for the year - - 23 1,261 1,284
Movement in respect of employee share scheme - (440) - - (440)
Employee share option scheme
- value of services provided - 39 - - 39
Dividends paid - - - (634) (634)
Transfer from share option reserve - (374) - 374 -
Transactions with shareholders - (775) - (260) (1,035)
Balance at 31 December 2025 531 2,983 522 1,324 5,360
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these preliminary results.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
At 31 December 2025
2025 2024
£'000 £'000
Assets
Non-current assets
Intangible assets - Goodwill 178 178
Intangible assets - Other 261 1,542
Property, plant and equipment 919 774
Right of use assets 6,179 5,371
Deferred tax assets 1,511 2,149
Other receivables 3,614 3,265
12,662 13,279
Current assets
Inventories - 24
Trade and other receivables 9,145 8,327
Other current assets 3,053 3,010
Cash and cash equivalents 9,400 4,870
Current assets excluding assets classified as held for sale 21,598 16,231
Assets classified as held for sale 116 -
Total current assets 21,714 16,231
Total assets 34,376 29,510
Equity
Share capital 531 531
Other reserves 2,983 3,758
Cumulative translation reserve 522 499
Retained earnings 1,324 323
Total equity 5,360 5,111
Liabilities
Non-current liabilities
Trade and other payables 1,332 715
Retirement benefit obligations 803 812
Lease liabilities 8,380 7,501
Provisions 1,458 1,235
11,973 10,263
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables 11,507 9,510
Lease liabilities 1,096 1,204
Current tax liabilities 455 20
Provisions 3,985 3,402
17,043 14,136
Total liabilities 29,016 24,399
Total equity and liabilities 34,376 29,510
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these preliminary results.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
For the year ended 31 December 2025
2025 2024
£'000 £'000
Cash flow from operating activities
Cash generated from operations 8,362 3,737
Interest paid (888) (952)
Tax paid (22) (52)
Net cash generated from operating activities 7,452 2,733
Cash flow from investing activities
Purchase of property, plant and equipment (508) (503)
Intangible asset expenditure (728) (787)
Proceeds from sale of Orridge, net of cash sold - 3,840
Interest received 14 -
Net cash generated (used in)/from investing activities (1,222) 2,550
Cash flow from financing activities
Repayment of lease liabilities (1,064) (1,401)
Dividends paid (634) (257)
Net cash used in financing activities (1,698) (1,658)
Net increase in cash 4,532 3,625
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 4,870 1,248
Foreign currency movements (2) (3)
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year 9,400 4,870
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these preliminary results.
NOTES TO THE PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT
1. BASIS OF PREPARATION
The financial information set out in this announcement does not comprise the
Company's statutory accounts for the years ended 31 December 2025 or 31
December 2024.
The financial information has been extracted from the statutory accounts of
the Company for the years ended 31 December 2025 and 31 December 2024. The
auditors reported on those accounts; their reports were unqualified.
The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024 have been delivered
to the Registrar of Companies, whereas those for the year ended 31 December
2025 will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies following the Company's
Annual General Meeting.
While the financial information included in this preliminary announcement has
been prepared in accordance with the recognition and measurement criteria of
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), this announcement does
not itself contain sufficient information to comply with IFRSs. The Company
expects to publish full financial statements that comply with IFRSs in June
2026.
These policies have been consistently applied to all years presented, unless
otherwise stated.
2. SEGMENT INFORMATION
The Group is organised into three main operating segments: Professional
& Financial Services (PFS), Stock & Inventory Systems & Services
(SISS) and Other.
The segment results for the year ended 31 December 2025 are as follows:
PFS SISS Other Group
Continuing activities £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Total gross segment sales 59,719 11,001 - 70,720
Inter-segment sales (120) - - (120)
Revenue 59,599 11,001 - 70,600
Operating profit 6,130 753 - 6,883
Finance costs (656) (43) (175) (874)
Profit/(loss) before tax 5,474 710 (175) 6,009
Taxation (1,042)
Profit for the year after tax 4,967
The segment results for the year ended 31 December 2024 are as follows:
PFS SISS Other Group
Continuing activities £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Total gross segment sales 48,917 10,442 - 59,359
Inter-segment sales (120) - - (120)
Revenue 48,797 10,442 - 59,239
Operating profit 2,773 748 - 3,521
Finance costs (662) (53) (237) (952)
Profit/(loss) before tax 2,111 695 (237) 2,569
Taxation 95
Profit for the year after tax 2,664
Revenue is allocated below based on the entity's country of domicile.
2025 2024
Continuing activities £'000 £'000
Revenue
Europe 70,600 59,239
70,600 59,239
3. DIVIDENDS
A final dividend in respect of the year ended 31 December 2025 of 2.75p per
share (2024: 1.75p), amounting to a payment of £729,000 (2024: £444,000) is
to be proposed at the Annual General Meeting on 16 June 2026.
In the year the Group paid an interim dividend of 0.75p per share (2024:
0.50p) totalling £190,000 (2024: £129,000).
4. EARNINGS PER SHARE
Basic earnings per share is calculated by dividing the profit attributable to
equity holders of the Company by the weighted average number of ordinary
shares in issue during the year, which excludes the shares held in the
Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) trust.
2025 2024
£'000 £'000
Profit/(loss) after tax from continuing operations 4,967 2,664
Profit/(loss) attributable to equity holders of the Company 1,302 2,007
Thousands Thousands
Weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue 25,643 25,827
Adjustment for share options 113 130
Weighted average number of ordinary shares for diluted earnings per share 25,756 25,957
2025 2024
Pence Pence
Continuing operations:
Basic earnings per share 19.37 10.31
Diluted earnings per share 19.29 10.26
Attributable to equity holders of the Company:
Basic earnings per share 5.08 7.77
Diluted earnings per share 5.06 7.73
Diluted earnings per share is calculated by adjusting the weighted average
number of ordinary shares outstanding to assume conversion of all dilutive
potential ordinary shares. The Company has only one category of dilutive
potential ordinary shares - share options.
The calculation is performed for the share options to determine the number of
shares that could have been acquired at fair value (determined as the average
annual market share price of the Company's shares) based on the monetary value
of the subscription rights attached to outstanding share options. The number
of shares calculated as above is compared with the number of shares that would
have been issued assuming the exercise of the share options.
5. NOTES TO THE CASH FLOW STATEMENT
Cash generated from operations 2025 2024
£'000 £'000
Profit for the year after tax - continuing 4,967 3,529
Loss from discontinued activity (3,665) (2,128)
Profit for the year 1,302 1,401
Adjustments for:
Taxation 1,042 (95)
Finance costs 888 952
Interest received (14) -
Depreciation 1,398 1,484
Amortisation of intangible assets 546 462
Profit on sale of PP&E (6) (5)
Profit on disposal of Orridge - (1,471)
Increase in provisions 806 471
Payments to ESOT (375) -
Foreign currency translation 14 28
Share option charge 39 57
Movement in non-current other receivables (349) (281)
Movement in working capital:
Decrease/(increase) in inventories 24 (7)
Increase in trade and other receivables (934) (1,599)
Increase in trade and other payables 2,629 2,340
Cash generated from operations 8,362 3,737
Report and Accounts
Copies of the 2025 Annual Report and Accounts will be posted to shareholders
in May. Further copies may be obtained by contacting the Company Secretary
at the registered office. Alternatively, the 2025 Annual Report and Accounts
will be available to download from the investors section on the Company's
website www.christiegroup.com
Key dates
The Annual General Meeting of the Company is scheduled to take place at
10.00am on Tuesday 16 June 2026 at Whitefriars House, 6 Carmelite Street,
London, EC4Y 0BS.
Group Companies
Professional & Financial Services
Christie & Co
Christie & Co is the leading specialist firm providing business intelligence in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors. A leader in its specialist markets, it employs the largest team of sector experts in the UK & Europe providing professional agency, valuation and consultancy services.
www.christie.com (http://www.christie.com)
Christie Finance
Christie Finance has 45 years' experience in financing businesses in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education, retail and medical sectors. Christie Finance prides itself on its speed of response to client opportunities and its strong relationships with finance providers.
www.christiefinance.com (http://www.christiefinance.com)
Christie Insurance
Christie Insurance has over 45 years' experience arranging business insurance in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors. It delivers and exceeds clients' expectations in terms of the cost of their insurance and the breadth of its cover.
www.christieinsurance.com (http://www.christieinsurance.com)
Pinders
Pinders is the UK's leading specialist business appraisal, valuation and
consultancy company, providing professional services to the licensed, leisure,
retail and care sectors, and also the commercial and corporate business
sectors. Its Building Consultancy Division offers a full range of project
management, building monitoring and building surveying services. Pinders staff
use business analysis and surveying skills to look at the detail of the
businesses to arrive at accurate assessments of their trading potential and
value.
www.pinders.co.uk (http://www.pinders.co.uk)
Stock & Inventory Systems & Services
Venners
Venners is the leading supplier of stocktaking, inventory, consultancy &
compliance services and related stock management systems to the hospitality
sector. Consultancy & compliance services include control audits and live
event stock taking. Bespoke software and systems enable real-time management
reporting to customers using the best available technologies. Venners is the
largest and longest established stock audit company in the sector in the UK.
www.venners.com (http://www.venners.com)
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